House fire on East Second Street under investigation

Firefighters tell ABC 36 that it may have started in a bedroom at the rear of the home where there is heavy smoke damage. Fire crews say that once they arrived, the fire was put out within minutes.

Officials tell ABC 36 that the homeowner arrived home shortly after the fire was put out and fell ill. Authorities say she was taken to the hospital to be checked out. Crews told ABC 36 that a family of at least four people, including a young child, are unable to stay at the home at the moment.

Officials say no one was home at the time of the fire, but Battalion Chief Mark Harvey says neighbors told the fire crew to be on the lookout for any animals still in the home.

“A fire starts in the middle of the night like this and there’s nobody home, we routinely talk to not only the homeowners, but anybody that may have seen what happened or may have been around,” said Battalion Chief Harvey.

“We did have a couple of folks come to us and say hey, ‘you know there are some dogs inside?’ Sometimes that’s very helpful when you’re trying to piece together what happened."

Fire crews tell ABC36 that they did not find any pets.They say the incident is still under investigation and that they may not have an answer as to what caused the fire until later Monday morning.